June 23, 2010

Daley says Wal-Mart workers could make $9.50 in a year

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 12:55 p.m.; last updated at 3:45 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley today continued to press for an agreement to allow a South Side Wal-Mart, saying workers at the Pullman neighborhood store could expect to make up to $9.50 an hour after a year.

Wal-Mart has promised to pay all workers at least $8.75 an hour in Chicago, fifty cents more than minimum wage but less than the $9.25 unions want.

But Daley said employees who acquit themselves well would soon be earning more.

"Within a year, if you have good attendance and work habits, they can get you up to $9.50, but that's up to you," Daley said at an unrelated City Hall news conference.

Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo today declined to discuss wage specifics, in keeping with corporate policy. But he said only a small percentage of Wal-Mart employees make the lowest pay the store offers. Most workers quickly earn raises, he said.

Daley expressed his frustration at the drawn-out Wal-Mart negotiations, responding to talk that the City Council Zoning Committee may not take a vote Thursday on the Pullman Park plan as previously scheduled.

"Vote it up or down, and then each will have to explain to themselves," he said.

Daley stuck to his argument that community pressure on elected officials to adopt the plan – not negotiations between labor leaders and Wal-Mart – will determine the plan's success.

"This is whether you, as a community person who maybe needs a job or wants a job, do you want a job," he said.

The mayor's remarks came after a key aldermen said he wants labor unions and the giant retailers to continue to work out their differences. Zoning Committee Chairman Daniel Solis said he's not sure he'll call the Wal-Mart proposal for a vote Thursay.

“I’m hoping that there will be continued discussion” between Wal-Mart executives and the unions who oppose the story, said Solis, 25th. “I think it would be smart for both parties to give up even more concessions.”

If the full City Council approves Wal-Mart’s second city store, it could open the way for dozens more, including smaller stores that focus on selling groceries in impoverished neighborhoods where traditional grocers have quit doing business.

Solis, who says he supports the giant retailer’s vast city expansion plans, is trying to manage a politically risky issue.

After Daley vetoed an ordinance that would have required a higher minimum wage for large retailers, including Wal-Mart, the unions engineered the defeat in 2007 of several of his allies who did not back the so-called living wage provision.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, said he believes the Zoning Committee will vote to approve the development.

“Public opinion is really weighing on some people, and this is the right thing to do,” said Beale, whose ward would get the new Wal-Mart. “I’m confident that at the end of the day, this will have the votes tomorrow.”

Even if Wal-Mart lost the committee vote, a majority of aldermen could agree at next week’s meeting to let the full council decide the issue.

Comments

I agree with Margaret, how much of a benefit are these jobs if the people working them will still require public assistance or subsidized housing to get by and raise a family? Though it is better than no job at all, Walmart is no replacement for the lost manufacturing sector jobs that have been hurting South Side communities for decades. I wish Daley would spend as much time courting technology or health care businesses as he does Walmart for people in communities struggling with high unemployment. Those are marketable skills that residents can build a career on - what skills do you acquire from scanning cheap, made in China garbage all day?

I cannot understand why Wal-Mart cannot build a store in the Pullman area. I thought this country was a democracy. The people who live around this proposed store are not objecting to it. I do not see where it is going to cause a lot of close to it businesses to fail. So what is the big deal? When my husbands former employer went out of business where was his union? All those years of paying dues for what? Let Wal-Mart build its store where the people who live in the community want one. This is America not some country like the former Communist Russia.

Union or not, Walmart can very well afford to pay $10.00 an hour and should.
I know that jobs are desperately needed, but who can afford to live in the City of Chicago or in Cook County on $8.75 an hour?

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